Release notes for Puppy Linux version 2.17.1

Another wonderful new Puppy! The 'standard' release is puppy-2.17.1-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
live-CD and is 82.6MB. There is one thing that stands out from reading
the release notes, and that is the major advances with hardware support
-- which astounds even me, considering that version 2.16 was released
barely 2 months ago. Yes, everything listed below is in that 82.6MB!

Release notes:

Enhanced dialup:
Puppy now has enhanced support for those who have to access the
Internet by dialup. Automatic detection and setup of serial and many
soft-modems -- quite amazing if you happen to have a compatible
soft-modem! Read moreRead more

For dialup, there is a new GUI application called PupDial. PupDial is integrated with the new auto-detection to provide extremely simple Internet connection. Read moreRead more

Enhanced printing: Finally, Puppy has CUPS!
This includes the complete Gutenprint 5.0.0 package so Puppy supports
over 500 printers out-of-the-box. Extra Hewlett Packard drivers are
available as a PET package. Read more

Print-to-PDF: This is out-of-the-box setup for CUPS, with the 'CUPS-PDF printer' ready to go. Read more

MMC and SD cards: These are now fully automatically supported. You should not have to setup anything. Read more

Boot configuration: The BootManager was introduced in Puppy 2.16 to manage loading of SFS
files (application combo-packs). My intention was that the BootManager would be a one-stop-shop
for configuring all aspects of bootup, and I have now taken the next
step and added management of modules. Read more

Hardware information:PupScan is my GUI application to view PCI and modules information. USB information is now added. Read more

Pmount
is a drive mounter. It has been totally revamped for 2.17. As well as
an improved display and bugfixes it is also now much faster. Underlying
scripts test-eide, test-scsi, probepart and probedisk totally rewritten.

Boot from USB CD/DVD drive: the live-CD will now boot from this, as well as the usual internal CD/DVD drive.

Boot from floppy disk: Puppy has this for a long time, now WakePup2 (floppy image file) has been greatly enhanced. Read more

Note: Many people contributed to the above, and you will find names in
the "Read more" links. There are also many testers who remain unsung
heroes. I would like to send out a special
thank-you to you guys. Also special thanks to Raffy, Lobster, Puppian
and others who look after the puppylinux.org community wiki. Also a
special thanks to Kapetanakis Giannis for providing a mirror host site
for the Puppy files on ibiblio (more).

Dialup modem detection and setup.
If you have a hardware modem, it should work fine. If you have a
soft-modem, which is most modern internal modem cards or on-motherboard
modems, then Puppy will auto-detect if it is potentially usable by
Puppy. When you start PupDial, there is a message whether a modem was
detected or not -- if your modem was detected then it is potentially
usable, otherwise it probably isn't. I use the word "potentially"
because getting it to actually work can be very difficult with some
soft-modems.
Puppy does try to auto-configure, but may not get it right, and so far
only a few testers have worked on this -- see my news blog and the
forum for success/fail reports so far.
An example of one fail report is an 'mwave' modem in an IBM Thinkpad.
Puppy has the driver and all firmware and executables to get this
going, and there is a startup script in /etc/init.d, but I don't have
the hardware to test it. This is an example where someone is needed to
dig in and find out what needs to be fixed for it to work.
When we do get a fix, we can put it permanently into Puppy.
Note, you may get lucky -- I have an ESS modem that worked
out-of-the-box. Another person reported the same immediate success with
a Trust MD1100 internal modem (more)
(these are currently available, so if you're looking for a
Linux-compatible PCI modem, this one looks like a goer). Somone else
reported that he just had to uncheck the "Check dialtone" checkbox in
PupDial and his modem worked.
So, testers wanted, and we'll turn this pup into the best distro for dialup users!

Upgrading from earlier version of Puppy.
No problem. If you run Puppy from live-CD, just boot the new CD and
Puppy will automatically perform any required upgrading of your
personal storage file/partition (usually pup_save.2fs file). For
USB or
frugal-hd installations, just copy the latest files (vmlinuz,
initrd.gz, pup_217.sfs and zdrv_217.sfs) to the USB or hd boot media.
If you
have already tested an earlier experimental, alpha or beta of v2.17,
it is extremely important that you get rid of any old pup_217.sfs and
zdrv_217.sfs files that may be found alongside the "pup_save" file on
the hard drive (in /mnt/home). I
strongly recommend that you boot an old version of Puppy or a
different operating system to do this -- or, you can boot the new CD
with the boot parameter "puppy pfix=ram". After you have removed these
old
files, boot Puppy 2.17 live-CD and type the boot parameter "puppy
pfix=clean" , so
that a proper upgrade of the latest version will occur. If
you want to be extra
cautious, make a backup of the pup_save.2fs file before upgrading!

My Developer News Blog. If
you want more details about all of the above, and learn day by day how
it all unfolded, at a very personal level, then please go here:http://www.puppylinux.com/news/

Download. If you want to
obtain the latest Puppy live-CD, or the "devx" module, that turns Puppy
into a complete C/C++ compiler environment, or the patched 2.6.21.5
kernel source, please go to the Puppy download page for links:http://www.puppylinux.com/download/downpage.htm

Note, file 'devx_217.sfs' is what we call a SFS
module, which is a "combo-pack" of applications in a single file. It
can be loaded at bootup and you instantly have all the apps
"installed". Or, not load it at bootup and all the apps are immediately
"uninstalled". Normally, you just download a SFS file to /mnt/home then
reboot Puppy, and it automatically loads.

A note on the kernel source: If you want to compile a module, or a
package that needs to reference the kernel source, we have the kernel
source available as an SFS file. Download 'devx_217.sfs' and
'kernel-src_217.sfs' to /mnt/home then reboot Puppy and you're in
business (that's how simple SFS files are to use, but note you can
manage loading of SFS files by running the BootManager (System menu)).
Get the official SFS files from here:http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/sfs_modules-2/